L’cold wave that hit Italy at the beginning of April, also affected the Balkans where the backlash of winter also translated into exceptional snowfall: the snow has fallen plentiful even in Belgradecausing a lot of damage and some injuries.
Freezing Scandinavian air over southeastern Europe kicked off a cold snap across much of the eastern continent. There very cold air mass in fact, it invested Poland, part of Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria up to involving Italy too, where it caused some snowfall up to hilly altitudes. The Balkans have been fully invested and here, thanks to the low pressure vortex formed on the Ionian Sea, there have been abundant snowfalls.
I strong winds who raided from the north forced one stop of maritime connections in Croatia and Montenegro, and to a blockage of some road sections.
Exceptional snow in the Balkans: in Belgrade accumulations never so high in April in 100 years
The snowfalls, rare episodes for spring, affected a large part of the western Balkans. Many accidents caused by winter weather conditions, even in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade.
Snow isn’t such an exceptional phenomenon in April in Belgrade – whose name means “white city” among other things – but local weather experts told Reuters it doesn’t usually accumulate on the ground. In the last 100 years, in fact, they have numbered 11 snowy episodes in Apriland none of these have caused such high accumulations: in all they have accumulated 14 inches of snow, never happened before.
Divan aprilski dan. #White City pic.twitter.com/4Awa7rSUdh
— Aleksandar Djukic (@Alex74Djukic) April 4, 2023
Road traffic is particularly difficult in mountain areas, where the snow has reached a thickness of 40 centimetres. According to a statement from the Interior Ministry’s Emergency Department, some villages were left without electricity. In the coming days it is feared that the snow may melt quickly, with risk of flooding and downstream flooding along the course of rivers.
Magical winter #White City u #Spring pic.twitter.com/KTnCTnBV2z
— To freedom! (@milosdjajic) April 4, 2023
